John Campbell is the co-founder and chair of Campbell Lutyens, an international private equity and infrastructure advisory house. He was born in Newcastle upon Tyne, lived in Jesmond close to the childhood home of Haldane's mother, and was educated at The King’s School Canterbury and at the University of Cambridge, where he read economics, winning an exhibition at Sidney Sussex College for his work in economic history. He began his career in corporate finance at N.M. Rothschild. He and his wife, Shellard, have three children, Milo, Coco and Rollo, four grandchildren and two step-grandchildren. Campbell has long been inspired by Lord Haldane’s example having first visited Haldane's Scottish home, Cloan in Perthshire, at the age of twelve. The book has been many years in planning and gestation.